Winston Churchill astonished a war-weary European continent on September 19, 1946, by publicly advocating a United States of Europe and the immediate creation of a Council of Europe. This momentous event occurred during a period in European history that has been labeled by British historian Geoffrey Barraclough as the “European Civil War of 1914‒1989.” Barraclough’s theory identifies seven decades during which European nations opposed each other in ideological conflict, beginning with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand I in Sarajevo and continuing through to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Churchill’s ambition in 1946 was to end the conflict in Europe permanently.
In contemporary Europe we have almost completely forgotten the fact that the European project boasts a British forefather; schoolchildren are taught mostly about Adenauer, a German, Monnet, a Frenchman, and De Gasperi, an Italian. However, it was actually Churchill, at the time the most prominent leader this side of the Atlantic, who originally initiated the idea.
The Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera enlisted the services of a quiet, middle-aged reporter named Eugenio Montale, renowned in literary circles for his obscure poems, to cover the proceedings of the newly born Council of Europe. When the Council convened for the first time, a unique connection was established between orator and reporter, with Montale, recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions”1 writing about the speeches of Winston Churchill, who was the 1953 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”2
Montale’s articles are collected in the anthology, Il Secondo Mestiere, or “The Second Profession,” and are worth reading in the current context of European discontent, characterized by debt crisis, Greek tragedy, a Mediterranean region in disarray, a despondent Germany, and a Great Britain dominated by the hack-gate scandal.
Montale writes that at the Council’s initial proceedings Churchill was unwavering in his insistence upon one vital issue: the creation of a single European army with the responsibility of protecting the continent and providing European diplomacy with some muscle. Nobody listened.
The generation born while the two Nobel laureates navigated the same halls is close to retirement now and in some insouciant countries such as Greece, Portugal, and Italy, many of them are already enjoying their retirement. Yet the formidable European army is nowhere to be seen; rather, we can observe a European operation akin to the popular U.S. television show M*A*S*H, where it is almost impossible to refuel tanks or trucks from a universal EU petrol pump, and EU field radios do not even share the same wavelengths. Additionally, deep cuts in military spending contribute to the further erosion of Churchill’s dream.
While the euro’s ocean of red ink drowns European and world public opinion, the real euro-tragedy is unfolding discreetly. The European baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, grew up with the promise of a continent that would become only more affluent, more powerful, and more integrated with the passing of time.
When I was an adolescent, to travel by train from my hometown in Sicily to London for mandatory English lessons and buy myself sandwiches and cokes for the 48-hour journey, I needed four different currencies: Italian liras, French and Swiss francs, and British pounds. Today the euro is respected even by Russian gangsters and Beijing central bankers.
However, the status quo has changed and not for the better. Europeans no longer think that in the next decade their continent will be more affluent, more powerful, and more integrated. The dream is over, and we Europeans have woken up to a post-boom generation characterized by euro-anemia, populist fever, and the voiceless unemployed.
European foreign policy will continue plodding benignly along, preaching to the Israelis and Palestinians to cease hostilities, while handing down recommendations with one hand and dispensing bribes with the other. The blue flag with its golden stars will soldier on with distinction in Afghanistan, ready to be unfurled as soon as the next political campaign requires. We will wage war in Libya against Gaddafi, but as separate nations, as France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, not under a common flag, with a common army, or adopting a common strategy.
The real hidden truth is that Europe failed when the Constitution was rejected by rabid public opinion, fed up with a document written by stale politicians, elaborated by worn-out thinkers, and read by no one. French and Dutch voters are blamed for their “NO” in national referenda, but their fellow Europeans were no less disenchanted.3
Our forefathers knew both what they desired: peace, prosperity, and the provisions of a welfare state, and what they rejected: war, Soviet brutality, neofascism, and American-style capitalism. When Churchill, the last lion, proposed a mighty European army, nobody listened. “Army? What army?” they responded. Club Med and ski resorts please, not another war.
Many fostered the delusion that Europe could be the “nice guy” of our troubled planet, proffering her generosity in the form of poorly conceived development plans. When the going gets tough we launch another investigation or fact-finding mission. America’s ill-fated wars in Iraq and Afghanistan spread the following mantra in Brussels: “We do not need a common defense or a common foreign strategy.”
It is frequent for European leaders to boast, “We are the true exporters of democracy, not the Americans, you need only look as far as Poland, Hungary, and the Baltic states….” While this may be true, the Cold War, however, was not won by establishing the euro, rather the euro was established after the end of the Cold War.
When I open my old grammar school textbooks at my mother’s house, the old promises still enchant me: Euratom, the European Nuclear Agency, CECA, the European Coal and Steel Community; an attractive logo for each issue or problematic. We Europeans desperately wanted to be the world’s nice guys after so many years of being the bullies, and now, middle-aged, we find that we have lived beyond our means, that our children won’t be spending their summers at Club Med, and that we haven’t eradicated the planet of dictators and despots.
Until Europe takes a stand, fighting the populist demons increasingly present on our domestic talk shows and websites, until we have decided what we really deem worth living and fighting for, and until we have found a modern-day Churchill to replace the toothless Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton, we cannot expect to see a twenty-first-century European foreign policy of intelligent diplomacy, supported by brave troops. Instead, we can expect documents, plenty of them, none Nobel Prize material; do not try to read them at home.
Gianni Riotta is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His new book, How Do We Get Ideas, will be published in October.
To reinvigorate debate over European foreign policy and Europe’s role in the world, Carnegie Europe is publishing a series of essays from leading policymakers, diplomats, experts, and journalists on Strategic Europe over the coming weeks. A new essay will appear every day.
1. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1975/
2. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1953/
3. You can try to read the failed Constitution at your own risk: http://www.proyectos.cchs.csic.es/euroconstitution/Treaties/Treaty_Const.htm
.jpg)